At 9:30pm PT Thursday, 30 April 2015, Tesla revealed ‘the missing piece’ with a lithium ion battery designed to power a home. The battery comes as in a cool self-contained cabinet designed to fit neatly in the garage or on an outside wall.
The Tesla Powerwall is designed to be charged from the grid during off-peak hours ready for use in peak hours, thereby reducing consumer electricity bills and additional load on the grid. It can also be charged from renewable energy sources such as solar or wind.

The new battery is being made available to installers for $3,500 US for 10kWh and $3,000 US for 7kWh. Deliveries are expected to begin before the end of 2015. In comments reminiscent of Steve Jobs feelings about the original cell phones Tesla CEO and PayPal co-founder Elon Musk said rivals’ batteries “suck”.

The launch of home batteries by Tesla underlines the unprecedented boom in solar power reported by Scientific American magazine earlier this year. Tesla is adding its considerable weight to the growth of the industry by building its Gigafactory in Nevada to increase the production of lithium ion batteries significantly and reduce the per-unit cost dramatically.

Elon Musk is also chairman of home solar provider SolarCity where it is believed Tesla’s battery cabinet has been trialled. The cabinet opens up opportunities for Tesla to supply industry with what might be a cleaner and more versatile power back-up system for computers.

In the age of climate change Tesla cars have become alternative status symbols. They are basically battery powered computers on wheels utilising road networks to spread the word on renewable energy. Driving a Tesla is exciting. Loves Data knows this because we did!